Station’s still getting static

Thursday

Aug 29, 2013 at 2:00 AMAug 29, 2013 at 11:00 PM

Cost squeezing has brought project projections, excluding property acquisition and planning expenses, down from $25.5 million to $21.6 million for the proposed Hyannis Fire Headquarters, but ratepayers are still calling for help.

Edward F. Maroney

EDWARD F. MARONEY PHOTOS

WHAT’S THE MISSION? – “I continue to see space in this building that’s not key to the mission,” Hyannis ratepayer Peter Cross, right, said at the Aug. 28 meeting of the Hyannis Fire District Building Committee. He said the proposed new station does not need a large community meeting room with storage space, a display area for the department’s antique fire truck, and an upgraded triage room for walk-in patients. Chief Harold Brunelle said he was “willing to fight” for the display area, but “if that’d be a deal-breaker, get rid of it.” He said he continues to hear requests from the community for meeting space at the station, and he defended the triage room by noting that “we don’t have a proper place” to put walk-ins, resulting in having to “get the blood off the lobby floor.” “I’ll score the triage room to you,” Cross allowed, “but on the others we have to respectfully disagree.”

Fire HQ costs at $21.6M in latest round

Cost squeezing has brought project projections, excluding property acquisition and planning expenses, down from $25.5 million to $21.6 million for the proposed Hyannis Fire Headquarters, but ratepayers are still calling for help.

“We’re right back where we were a few months ago,” said resident Peter Cross. “This is unacceptable money. It will cost me in my lifetime about $4,000 to $5,000 extra.”

“We believe we are right within range on pricing,” said Michael McKeon of Kaestle Boos, the project’s architects. “There are no fancy finishes or frills. You might consider the space for the antique apparatus a frill, but that’s a very small part, I think 1 percent of the cost of the building. This is what fire stations cost now in Massachusetts and especially on Cape Cod.”

At the Hyannis Fire Department Building Committee meeting, chairman Richard Gallagher asked members to take the latest estimates home with them, as well as draft answers to questions and alternatives raised by a Greater Hyannis Civic Association review committee, and do some thinking. Options include endorsing what’s on hand or ordering the designers and station personnel back to the drawing board to come up with a smaller building with fewer features.

The committee will meet again Sept. 16 at 5 p.m., to hear about the costs involved in flipping the building so the administration wing is built next to CVS on the High School Road Extension site while personnel continue to operate in the existing station. One of the unknowns among the project’s indirect costs is the expense of a temporary move for up to two years if the current site is vacated during construction.

Project principals are hoping the committee would vote on accepting the plans as early as the following meeting, scheduled for 5 p.m. on Sept. 25 at 5 p.m. Both meetings in September will be held at the Hyannis Youth & Community Center.

This week, the committee and an audience of 30 or so got a detailed look at the second and third floors of the building. Slides showed existing conditions and floor plans were used to illustrate proposed arrangements. Some of the increases in square footage were described as necessary for confidential meetings. The second floor is primarily living quarters for firefighters on duty, and the third for administrative functions.

The audience listened respectfully during the lengthy presentation, but in the end the price point remained the major concern.

“These numbers are nowhere near acceptable,” resident John Julius declared. “We live in the Town of Barnstable, the fourth wealthiest in the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, the village of Hyannis happens to be one of the poorest in the Commonwealth.” Later, he observed, “This is a great time for this town to consolidate all these fire districts so it gets spread out so everybody pays their portion.”

“We certainly understand all those things,” Gallagher, an elected fire commissioner, told Julius. “This committee is working to make all the adjustments possible. What we’d like to hear you say is how you propose to build a new station, which we direly need. We will come to a number I hope even you will agree with.”